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T O P I C R E V I E W

stsmithva

Is "Space" by James A Michener a good read? From what I understand it's a fictional account of the early space program, concentrating mostly on management and technician characters but also with at least one made-up astronaut. Is this "alternative" account interesting and entertaining, or are all the differences from what really happened too distracting?

KSCartist

It is a wonderful fictionalized account of Operation Paperclip, the beginnings of NASA and the Mercury, Gemini and Apollo programs. There is more than one "made-up" astronaut.

I've read the book more than three times in the last 20 years and if you like Michener and his attention to detail - you'll love "Space".

garymilgrom

I'm with Tim - a great read. Very entertaining.

ilbasso

I haven't read it for more than 20 years, but it was the only Michener book I had ever read at the time, and it encouraged me to read more of his work. The fictionalized flight of Apollo 18 is worth the price of the book itself!

GoesTo11

Judging from the comments here, I may have to revisit this one. I remember enjoying the Apollo 18 chapters, but generally finding the book overlong and weighed down by several tangential subplots that struck me as only marginally relevant. But I was very young when I read it (had to be at least 20 years ago), and it may have just been too much of a "grown-up" book for me. If I ever get caught up on my must-read list (increasingly unlikely) maybe I'll give it another go.

space4u

Yes I would recommend it Steve. I happened to have my hardback, new copy of it (in 1982) with me in Florida on a trip and heard Edgar Mitchell speak in Florida and got him to autograph my copy for free!

medaris

I enjoyed it as well. The main characters are composites, but it's difficult not to try to work out some of the astronauts that influenced their portrayal!

bnick

I just recently finished reading James Michener's "Space" and I had heard there was a mini-series made of the book back in the 1980's. I really enjoyed the book but I have been unable to locate the mini-series in any form.

If anyone has any information about how one can see the mini-series in any way (video, dvd, online, etc.) I'd be very interested.

Editor's note: Threads merged.

RSimon007

No idea if it's great or lousy but I saw this source online for the DVD. If you buy it please share your thoughts on the quality of the DVD and the mini-series.

skye12

It was a CBS mini series which I thoroughly enjoyed at the time in 85. The original airing was 5 parts and 13 hours in duration. It starred Harry Hamlin and Beau Bridges as the main astronauts. Also had Blair Brown, Bruce Dern, Michael York and James Garner it.

After the initial airing, subsequently it was cut down to 4 parts and 9 hours in length. This is the cut a few knockoff sites supposedly have.

I would love for the original 13 hour version to be put out and find it strange it has disappeared. If anyone has a line on this, that would be great.

I watched it when it first aired on CBS. I may have a couple of the episodes on Beta video tape still (not that they do me much good since I don't have a functioning Beta VCR anyway). Michener's style at the time was to write like that and cover historical times with fictional parallel accounts, but heavily grounded in the history of what actually happened and he was a first class researcher. That was the style of things back then as there are numerous other books that came out in the 1970s and 80s that paralleled that writing style. The "Space" miniseries I believe was produced thanks to the success the networks had in their broadcast of "Centennial" in the 1970s.

Guenther Wendt worked as a technical advisor on the series and there may have been some astronaut involvement as well (I don't know for sure though). Miniature, costume and effects work as I recall were groundbreaking at the time. I particularly remember a scene in the fictional Gemini mission where you saw Harry Hamlin as astronaut "John Pope" asleep in the Gemini after an Agena dock and they do a long camera pullout from the window until it was just a small dot in the sky orbiting the Earth.

The book I've never read entirely, but I did glance at a couple pages in high school and it seemed to have very good educational content as the American scientist who in the stories did the fictionalized account of "Paperclip" used a pair of jeeps and some circles drawn on the flightline of Ellington field to help explain a simplified account to Pope and Claggett (Hamling and Bridges) of orbital mechanics in rendezvous and docking. I believe the book version of the Gemini mission was a variation of the Gemini 11 flight which involved rendezvous with two Agena vehicles (something the movie did not cover).

I've still got a Clagget, Pope and Perry Apollo 18 mission patch which was based on the prop patches from the film. I got it at Star Realm many years ago and I don't exactly know who made it.

carl walker

The patches for the "Space" miniseries were made by Stewart Aviation in the UK. I think part of the show might have been filmed in UK (apparently Orfordness in Suffolk).

The Gemini capsule featured in the series is on display at the USS Intrepid Air and Space museum (or it was...)

Great book and miniseries.

liftoff1

I'm looking for James A. Michener's television miniseries "Space." Does anybody know if it is available on DVD?